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Your Holiday Weekend at the Movies

Public Enemies: Man, do I wish I was one of those people who argue passionately for Michael Mann’s Miami Vice movie being really awesome and underrated. Seriously. I would’ve been happy to be that guy. But: it’s not awesome, nor underrated, though it has the requisite several cool scenes guaranteed in any Mann movie. So I will be counting Public Enemies as something of a comeback if it’s as good as it looks from the trailer. You know what else entices me about this Depp-as-Dillinger crime saga? The semi-mixed reviews. It’s getting the kind of pull-quotes (“emotionally neutered,” “curiously uninvolving,” “precious little dramatic juice”) that recall misguided criticisms of Zodiac or The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, other movies that tackled familiar real-life subjects without squeezing desperately for that “dramatic juice.” Maybe the naysayers are correct — they certainly were with Miami Vice; nay, Farrell and Foxx moping is not the same as charisma! — but I’ve got a good feeling about this.

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs: Can’t they just quit writing dopey quasi-wisecracking (quascracking?) dialogue for the mammoth and the sloth and the tiger, and just do a movie about the little rat squirrel thing that wants the acorn? I actually really enjoy the Ice Age 3trailer, and that has a lot to do with it showing no footage of any of its main characters. Incidentally, I have yet to see footage of any of its main characters from this movie, though I assume if I watched Nickelodeon I’d be more aware. That “dinosaurs” bit in the title makes me seeing this slightly more likely, but I haven’t seen Ice Age 2 so I assume I’ll be totally lost.

I Hate Valentine’s Day: Nia Vardalos. Again. So soon? I love that apparently two different marketing departments decided that, you know what, a month is plenty of time between Nia Vardalos romantic comedies. Although: if either marketing plan was based on most of the world not knowing that the other Nia Vardalos movie ever existed, that reasoning is bit more sound, if self-detonating. Anyway, this movie stars Nia Vardalos in a quasi-indie rom-com with her My Big Fat Greek Wedding mate (I guess this movie gets custody of the dude and My Life in Ruins got custody of the Greek). What more do you need to not know?